Tino nets hat-trick for U-18s in warm-up for competitive return

Young Dons earn victory in friendly match

8 February 2018

An impressive treble from Tino Carpene helped the young Dons to victory in a friendly win against Under-19s coaching company Pure Performance.

With the South East section of the Youth Alliance League coming to a finish and weekends spare before the Merit League section begins, the young Dons filled the gap with a 3-1 win. The Under-18s are without a game again this weekend, so this was an important run-out to keep them ticking over.

After 10 minutes, the excellent midfield three of Ethan Nelson-Roberts, Finlay Macnab and Jack Rudoni started to take control of the game. Kane Crichlow was making a rare appearance as he awaits his International clearance. It was Crichlow who played the decisive pass of a fluent dons move with a clever reverse pass setting up the in-form Carpene (pictured), who rounded the keeper and slotted home. Within six minutes, Carpene doubled his tally, pouncing on a punch that fell way short from the opposition keeper, who was under pressure from after Great Evans. Further chances followed for Evans, Nelson-Roberts and Crichlow to extend the lead, but it remained 2-0.

Wimbledon started the second-half in similar form to the first and it was not long before Carpene completed his hat-trick. A well weighted pass by Finley McNab put Carpene through again and he finished clinically. It was Carpene's sixth goal in just three games. Zach Robinson entered the fray to make his first Under-18s appearance and he came close to scoring on two occasions, only for a mixture of good goalkeeping and defending to deny him a debut goal. A late consolation goal was gifted to our opponents with a sloppy back pass punished in the 82nd minute.

Under-18s Assistant Manager James Oliver-Pearce said: "We were pleased with the performance and the boys displayed a lot of what we had worked on during the week. Not only was the football exciting, but we were defensively organised, which gave us a good foundation. Once we went 3-0 up, it was then about the boys maintaining good habits and ensuring the standards did not drop. Unfortunately, this was not always the case and we will be making sure that we reflect on that and come up with solutions, so that complacency does not creep in."